Yuan Yao and Yan Li's faces immediately paled at the sight of the white-haired woman.

"Oh, so there's a couple of semi-ghostly beings among the three of you; no wonder you were able to emerge from my restriction." The purple-armored general was somehow able to immediately identify Yuan Yao and Yan Li's constitutions, and he lost interest in them as a result.

He then turned his attention toward Han Li, and the latter was immediately struck by a bone-chilling burst of spiritual sense sweeping toward him, attempting to completely see through his entire being.

Han Li's brows furrowed as he activated his Great Development Technique to repel most of the armored general's spiritual sense.

At the same time, he also swept his spiritual sense toward the man.

As a result, Han Li's expression changed slightly as he discovered that the body of armored general was extremely cold, and was not a body of flesh and blood, but there was no Yin ghost energy within it, either.

He then swept his spiritual sense toward the other two generals as well as the crimson-armored soldiers behind them, and he discovered that aside from the carriage-drawing beasts, all of them were also completely devoid of life.

"These are puppets?" Han Li was shocked as he arrived at this verdict.

These puppets seemed to have already controlled the ghostly beings of the infernal river. Setting aside the crimson-armored soldiers, the three armored generals each had different auras, and they'd most likely been possessed by the souls of extremely powerful beings.

Furthermore, the fact that the two demon monarchs hadn't attacked these puppets yet was a clear indication that both sides were evenly matched. Otherwise, such an impasse couldn't be maintained as the two women would've destroyed their opponents already.

Liu Zu and Di Xue weren't present, so they were presumably still trapped within the ghostly mist, battling the powerful ghost that had unleashed that thunderous roar earlier.

"Get over here!" Mu Qing suddenly waved a hand toward Han Li.

There was certainly no chance for them to escape in this situation, so Han Li could only do as he told, flying over to the two demon monarchs before cupping his fist in a respectful salute. "I pay my respects to my two seniors!"

"Fellow Daoist Han, why isn't Jin Ling with you? Where is it right now?" Rather than asking about why Han Li and the others had escaped from the ghostly mist, she instead enquired about that golden ape.

"I'm not sure. Brother Jin and I were forcibly separated by the ghostly beings in the mist," Han Li replied truthfully.

"Is that so?" Mu Qing's brows furrowed upon hearing this.

Han Li glanced at the puppets they were facing off against, and asked, "Senior Mu, what are these beings? Were they the ones that set up this ghostly mist?"

"Fellow Daoist Lan and I have only just recently escaped from this mist as well. We were just about to unleash some techniques to break this restriction, only to be forced into this confrontation by those beings, and we haven't had a chance to ask them anything yet. However, I didn't see these things last time I was in here, so I think they're just like us in that they also came into the infernal river from the outside." Mu Qing was clearly also rather perplexed.

Han Li's expression changed slightly upon hearing this.

"As you've figured out already, we're facing an army of puppets, but they're certainly nothing to be scoffed at. Those three puppet generals are all extremely powerful, and even if Fellow Daoist Lan and I were to attack in person, we're still not confident in our ability to kill them," Mu Qing said in a grave voice.

On the other side, the white-haired woman didn't ask Yuan Yao and Yan Li any questions. Instead, she looked on at the three puppet generals, and asked in a cold voice, "I don't care what you are, but answer me this; are you going to withdraw this restriction or not?"

"Withdraw this restriction? What a joke! You outsiders have infiltrated the holy land of our Mayfly Race, and you're trying to get your hands on our holy artifact. You're the ones who attacked us last time as well, right? We let you get away on that occasion, but that won't happen again!" the purple-armored general replied in a cold voice.

"The Mayfly Race?" The white-haired beauty's expression changed drastically while Mu Qing's heart jolted upon hearing this.

Meanwhile, Han Li's brows furrowed in befuddlement. He had no recollection of seeing any records about such a race.

"You know of our race? Then that makes things easier. If you surrender and hand yourselves over without a fight, we could perhaps spare your lives. Otherwise, even if you manage to get away this time, our race will deploy troops to wipe you off the face of the Spirit Realm." The purple-armored general was initially slightly taken aback, but a menacing tone then crept into its voice.

Mu Qing and the white-haired woman glanced at one another upon hearing this, and their expressions at turned quite grim in the face of the threats made by the purple-armored general.

The two of them then began to transmit their voices to one another in a silent conversation.

The purple-armored general merely chuckled coldly upon seeing this, but did nothing to stop them.

As the voice transmission continued, an indecisive look appeared on the white-haired woman's face, and Mu Qing's brows were also tightly furrowed; it appeared that neither of them could arrive at a decision.

"You proclaim this to be the holy land of the Mayfly Race, and you'll to support these claims. Since when did the Mayfly Race switch to cultivating in Yin ghost powers?" the white-haired woman asked in a cold voice.

"You don't need to be made aware of that! Do you really think that the infernal river surrounding this space appeared out of thin air?" the purple-armored general replied with a cold chuckle.

Mu Qing and the white-haired woman's expressions changed slightly upon hearing this, and they seemed to be growing a little more convinced by the armored general's claims.

After a brief silence, the white-haired beauty adopted a cold expression, and said, "Hmph, who knows if you're truly from the Mayfly Race or merely imposters? Even if you really are from the Mayfly Race, I'd only be wary if a Heavenly Mayfly Tier being from your race were present; you think a few puppets like you can force us to surrender?"

Mu Qing didn't say anything to stop her, and a layer of azure Qi had appeared over her body. Red light flashed within the eyes of the purple-armored general upon hearing this, and it wasted no further time with words as it slammed a palm onto the back of its rhinoceros steed.

The beast immediately reared its head before inhaling deeply.

All of the surrounding air seemed to have been sucked away by the rhinoceros, following which it opened its mouth with a low roar. A ball of azure light then shot forth amid a piercing flash of light, heading straight for the two demon monarchs.

A thunderous rumbling noise was erupting from the ball of azure light, and the white-haired woman's expression darkened as she made a hand seal. Grey light flashed behind her, and a massive ghostly projection with a head of disheveled hair appeared, then swelled drastically in size. It opened its massive mouth and blasted forth a ball of black light in retaliation.

The two balls of light clashed amid an earthshattering boom! Azure and black light intertwined, creating a massive mushroom cloud in the aftermath of the explosion.

A vicious light appeared in the white-haired woman's eyes upon seeing this, and she let loose a long shrill cry.

The thousands of ghostly soldiers then transformed into gusts of pitch-black Yin winds as they swept toward their opponents, led by the eight ghost monarchs.

The opposing purple-armored general harrumphed coldly before drawing the two golden war hammers from his back.

"Even though this is only a puppet body, I should be able to unleash half of my full power," the purple-armored general murmured to himself in an unintelligible voice, then swung his golden war hammers through the air.

The war hammers were then released from his grasp and flew into the air before radiating boundless golden light, manifesting over 100 golden war hammer projections that came crashing down soundlessly toward the gusts of Yin winds.

Eight long cries erupted from amid the Yin winds at once, following which the eight Yin Armor Ghost Monarchs appeared at low altitudes. The either hurled their weapons through the air as streaks of black light, or thrust their palms violently into the air a few times, or opened their mouths to expel bursts of black light.

In any case, eight bursts of black light hurtled forth, combining to form a black barrier of light.

All of the golden war hammer projections that struck the barrier of light were completely trapped like fish in a net.

"Nice party trick!" The purple-armored general's expression darkened as he let loose a derisive harrumph. All of the golden war hammer projections caught within the light barrier then exploded in unison, and the barrier was completely pulverized by the resulting blasts of violent golden light. The golden light then descended onward, trying to engulf all eight of the ghost monarchs.

However, right at this moment, Mu Qing sprang into action.

She flipped a hand over before grabbing the air, and a rich peculiar fragrance suddenly wafted through the air beneath the golden light. Rainbow spiritual light then flashed, following which countless giant flower projections appeared out of thin air.

These projections kept the golden light at bay as they clashed amid a resounding boom, and the Yin Armor Profound Ghosts down below took advantage of this opportunity to charge toward their enemies.

The purple-armored general merely waved a hand in response without saying anything, and a row of crossbow-wielding crimson-armored puppets immediately stepped forward at once, then let loose their arrows in unison.

Countless crimson arrows descended into the Yin winds like a torrential downpour.

Balls of crimson light exploded within the Yin winds, and a series of ghostly figures began to plummet from the sky.

However, during this split-second, the Yin winds plunged headfirst into the army of crimson-armored puppets, led by the eight ghost monarchs.

An extremely fierce battle ensued. None of the ghost monarchs nor normal Yin Armor Profound Ghosts attacked the three puppet generals. Conversely, the three puppets paid no heed to the ghostly soldiers, either, as their attention was entirely focused on the two demon monarchs.

As for Han, Yuan Yao, and Yan Li, they were naturally also disregarded.

The two women were naturally looking back at the three puppets with rapt focus.

Aside from the purple-armored puppet, the other two puppet generals both had rather strange appearances.

One of them was around 400 feet tall with three eyes on its head, and a massive ax in its hands. It wore a suit of azure armor that was riddled with sharp black spikes, and it was truly a harrowing sight to behold.

Meanwhile, the other puppet general was only around 20 feet tall and clad in a suit of crimson armor. However, it had two heads and four arms, each of which was holding a different weapon in the forms of a saber, a sword, a spear, and a halberd.

Both of their steeds consisted of the same type of crimson water-buffalo-like beast, and neither of these puppets had uttered a single word up to this point, seemingly content to allow the purple-armored puppet to speak on their behalf.

However, the three-eyes puppet suddenly spoke for the first time.

"There's no need to meet their assault head-on; we just have to stall them for a while. I've already notified the others, and they'll assist those ghostly beings to kill the other intruders, then come and reinforce us."